Am I wanted by the Government?

Allow me to re-enact a phone conversation from work today...

[Caller ID displays random number with no city listed]

Me: "National FFA, this is Shane"

Caller: "Shane, this Officer Collins with the U.S. Capitol Police"

Me: "I'm...sorry?"

Caller: "This Officer Collins with the U.S. Capitol Police"

Me: "Hi? How can I help you?"

Caller: "Do you have any idea what this call is in regards to?"

Me: "I'm hoping its in regards to a permit I sent in for an event being held on the Capitol lawn..."

Caller: "Is there another reason why we should be calling you"

Me: "No."

Caller: "I'm sorry, did I have you worried?"

Me: "Honestly? Yes!"

Caller: "That has the tendency to happen."

WTF.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Two of my friends from college are National PAS Officers. PAS falls under the FFA umbrella and the organization is managed by our Collegiate Services team. They were at the FFA center today for the beginning of their officer training. I had the chance to sneak down to the meeting room they were in and poke my head in. They were eating lunch and listening to some of our staff speak. When they saw me they jumped out of their chairs and raced out of the room. They ran over and gave me a hug. It was so awesome to see them! I've been without my friends from college and home for almost six months now and it's getting harder and harder to deal with.

We must have stood and talked for ten minutes but it felt like thirty seconds. I let them get back to their training and almost had a breakdown on my way to the lunchroom. I would have given anything to spend some more time with them. I feel like there's so much I could have caught up on. Sometimes I wonder how I ever thought that this would be easy.

The Great iPod Screw-up! Part Deux

A manager from the local Best Buy store never called me back. Furious, I called my mom and asked her to mail me the iPod when she had some time to stop by the Post Office. She did and it finally arrived today. The new refurbished iPod seems to work just fine and the outside of it looks like new except for the missing serial number and Apple icon on the back. This makes me wonder if it is a knock-off or something...

Also accompanying the iPod is a small green card offering for me to take a survey regarding my iPod Replacement Experience. GLADLY!

The Great iPod Screw-up!

So my previous post detailed my state of mourning over the loss of my iPod. Here's how the in-store experience happened...(cue dream sequence soundtrack)

Geek Squad Rep: "Is your home address still 8 Julie Court...blah blah blah?"

Me: "No, it's changed. My new address is 6722 Sun..."

GSR: "Okay, we'll go ahead and send that out for service!"

Me: "Just to be sure, it's going to ship to that new address right?"

GSR:"No it will actually be shipped back to us here in the store. We'll give you a call when it's ready and you can come in and pick it up."

FAST FORWARD FIVE DAYS

I got a phone call from my sister that I got a package. I asked her to open it and she said it was an iPod. I thought, hmmm...I'll just call Best Buy and have them send UPS to pick it up.

First I called the store. They remarked on how unusual that was (thanks guys). They directed me to BB customer relations where I talked to "Channing". He proceeded to ask me why my parents won't ship it back. I informed him that it wasn't their responsibility to pay for it. He told me to call UPS and get a quote. I ship conference supplies all the time. Without the weight of the package, they can't give me a quote. He told me "I don't know what I can do to make you happy". I told him that he may need to re-think his career choice. I then asked to be transfered to someone with the Geek Squad.

A Geek Squad "Agent" named "LaQwanna" told me that I should speak to someone in customer service. She transferred me to "Isaiah". Isaiah happens to work in the cubicle next to Channing. Go figure. He told me that "Channing already suggested you call UPS sir". Thank you Isaiah. Before hanging up Isaiah told me to call the local store (IS ANYONE ELSE NOTICING THE CIRCLE FORMING HERE?). I asked him to give me the number of a service manager. He asked "from the store or the service center?". Heatedly, I said "Assuming this was sent out for repair, the service center". I then called the Dallas Service Center which was closed at 8:30pm.

I then figured my last ditch effort is to talk to the store manager. When I called the store, the guy answering said the managers were currently busy and wanted to take a message. After hearing more than he wanted to, he took down my phone number and name and promised a manager would call me back.


Now, we wait...

Click of Death

My iPod died recently. I've diagnosed it having, what google refers to as, "the click of death". In a nut shell, the hard drive died. After surfing the web to find some options, I learned that many iPod owners have had luck in reviving their iPod by whacking or dropping it. I was not so lucky. My iPod has truly gone to a better place. The large Apple Store in the sky. To affirm that it is in fact dead, every time I attempt to turn it on I see the following image accompanying the clicking sound:
The good news is that I purchased it from Best Buy two years ago with a service plan that covers it through March of 2009. With any luck, they will replace my iPod with a current model. If not, I'll need to wait until my next pay check to buy a new one. Either way, I'm in need of replacing it because I'm traveling at least three time between now and the end of July and without the ability to listen to music on the plane, I might go insane.

I would be remiss to note that when I purchased in two years ago, I paid $300 for 30 GB of storage space. At the time, that was the second largest iPod available. The largest was 60 GB and cost about $400. The most comparable model that I can get today is 80 GB for $240. That's right folks, I could pay $60 less for nearly three times the storage capacity. You really have to admire the evolution of technology.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE: (May 10, 2008. 7:30pm) After bringing my iPod to Best Buy and consulting "The Geek Squad", I was offered two options:

1. Send my iPod out to be repaired.
2. Receive a new refurbished iPod.
   

I asked which would get me a working iPod the fastest and I was told that it would take two weeks to get a refurbished one while it would take "much longer" to have mine repaired. The way I look at it, the hard drive is shot. Essentially it would come back refurbished anyways except for the outside case. Feeling no emotional attachment to the outside shell of my current iPod, I opted for option two. These next fourteen days are going to be very quiet...

Margaritaville

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Tonight was spent enjoying the company of friends who have quickly become my Indianapolis family. We ate a Mexican dinner and drank margaritas after work tonight. The food was nothing amazing but the company was definitely nothing short of a good time. It's been a while since I've posted last and while this post isn't very fulfilling, it will have to do. I'll post again when I find a topic worthy of a good rant.

After Hours

I have a new official favorite thing: Having dinner and drinks with co-workers on an outdoor patio.

Tonight I went to Rock Bottom with some fellow life-changers. We had a few drinks and several hours of laughing over dinner as we sat out on the patio. It was just a fun evening that was well-spent enjoying the nice weather.

Tradition? I hope so!

Continuing Education

I'm old. At least that's what I've decided. I get up, I go to work, I come home, I make dinner, I go to bed at 10:30 where I read a book on business management. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and my new life here but I need more.

I'm considering grad school. I've been soliciting opinions for a few weeks now. I've decided that I need to grow more professionally in order to get where I want to be. I like what I do now but I need programs where I can travel and expand my horizons. I need a little more creative license than what I have. Is it wrong that I think this when five months ago I was labeling this my dream job? I love my programs but I want more from them. I still love the organization but I want to experience what other people within it do.

Am I being too impatient? While you mull it over I'll be researching grad schools...

Shook Me All Night Long

So I have officially been in an Earthquake. As you may have heard, the Midwest experienced an earthquake this morning. It measured 5.2 on the Richter scale and happened at about 5:37am.

I woke up to a painting hanging above my bed rattling against the wall and everything in the room vibrating (including the bed). I remember thinking that it might have been an earthquake but as soon as I thought about it, it stopped and things were normal. I went back to sleep. I chalked it up to being a dream.

When I got to work, I asked co-workers if there had been an Earthquake and they laughed because it had been all over TV and the radio. We joked about it and I went on with my day. Around 11:00 I was in our warehouse packing and shipping conference supplies with a colleague. We went upstairs and someone asked if we felt the tremor. Assuming that they were still picking on me for asking about it this morning, I told them that it was a "funny joke". Several other people confirmed that there had been an after-shock which shook their office walls and was very much felt. Oddly enough, in our first floor warehouse, we had felt nothing.

It took me a while to get over the tornadoes. Now I'm contending with earthquakes. Indianapolis is on a major fault line and it's said that because the earth here is older than in California, we are more likely to have a major earthquake that far surpasses anything on the west coast.

HR needs to include this information in a potential employee's job offer.

Yes, I'm watching Oprah

So now that the title got your attention, I'll say it...I'm not watching Oprah but I am subscribing to her podcasts. Before you pass judgment on me and my masculinity, consider the following...

In the last two years, I've become obsessed with the Strengths Movement and Strengths based education. If you're not familiar, the basic premise is that each of us are made up of unique talents and traits. If we take time to affirm our talents and apply them to our academics, careers and personal lives, they will develop into strengths. The key is not to focus on your weaknesses but to rather build on your strengths and let the rest follow suit.

Doesn't that make perfect sense? Who wants to focus on what they're not good at? At what causes them not to succeed? IT'S DEPRESSING! Why not focus on what you are good at and let that build your confidence and define your abilities? All too often in education, kids are made aware of the areas to which they are failing to meet the standard. Think of the impact this really has on a student. Imagine being able to empower that student to use their strong points to their advantage. As the student realizes his or her own potential, he or she will embrace the idea of improving their areas of lesser-strength.

So what does this have to do with Oprah and why am I adding her to my iPod? I'm not. She is sponsoring an eight session web seminar delivered by Marcus Buckingham. Buckingham is the co-author of several books on the Strengths Movement (First Break All the Rules, Now Discover Your Strengths, and Go Put Your Strengths to Work). The seminar is completely free and is to be completed at your own pace. The sessions can be downloaded as podcasts to your iTunes for free and worksheets and a syllabus can be found online.

If you're interested in learning more about the Strengths Movement, I'd highly suggest any of Buckingham's books. Also pick up StrengthsFinder 2.0 and take the StrengthsFinder Assessment. The assessment (to be completed online using the provided access code) will recognize 34 different themes of talent and identify your top five. You will also receive access to a personalized report that will describe in detail why those five areas are your top themes of talent. You'll be surprised at how what this report will say about you. It's accuracy is almost frightening. SF 2.0 will also help you develop these five areas into strengths by applying them to academics, your career and even your personal life.

Think your strong? Prove it.

Supporting the Dentists of Greater Indianapolis

So I spent most of my morning at the dentist. I was in the chair for over 90 minutes and somehow managed to walk out of the office without ever getting my teeth cleaned. How exactly? I'm not sure but that is a post for another time...

However, before walking out the door, the receptionist spins around in her chair and asks "So are you guys keeping your convention in Indy?" Puzzled by the randomness of her question, I truthfully reply, "A decision hasn't been made yet but it will be either here or Louisville." She then elaborates by informing me that "it would be great if you would."

Immediately, two thoughts come to mind:

1. We're contracted to keep the National FFA Convention here until 2012. Even if we decided to move it to Louisville, there's time to come to terms with that disappointment.
2. While the convention stimulates the economy of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Area by generating $40 million each year, I'm pretty sure the dental industry sees none of that.

With all due respect: I'm willing to stimulate the economy of your office by $50 if you clean my teeth.

Thanks.

Dear Uncle Sam,

We regret to inform you that your check made payable to SJ on April 3, 2008 for INCOME TAX REFUND has been returned to you for insufficient funds. Additionally, you have been assessed a service charge of $40.00. This is in addition to any fees that may be charged by your financial institution.

What? That's how it's worked for me the time I've bounced a check!

Shaken, not stirred, by laughter

I love it.

iMemories

I've become rather obsessed lately with making random playlists in iTunes. I've found that most of these lists are the soundtracks to special memories in my life. There's the Summer '07 list with a collection of songs from my time on WLC staff last summer. I've got the Mallard Mix which is a collaboration of songs from my college party days. Tonight I made Cobleskill Country Night from a bunch of country songs that were part of my Wednesday night routine while a freshman at Coby.

It's interesting how music can trigger memories and emotions. I think back to sixth grade and the first CD that I ever owned (Space Jam Soundtrack) and to songs that I used to listen to while driving around in my first car ("In the End" by Linkin Park). I remember songs that I used as a State FFA Officer ("Your Life is Now" by John Mellencamp in my Retiring Address) and tunes that I'd hear drunk college kids cover in the worst karaoke attempts ever.

I could keep rambling on and on but I'll let Stevie Wonder wrap up my thoughts..."Music is a world within itself , with a language we all understand."

Grounded

I came home tonight and checked my YAHOO! e-mail only to see the headline...

AMERICAN AIRLINES CANCELS 500 FLIGHTS

You can imagine my happiness when three of my BLAST Off conference trainers are scheduled to fly to their conference locations tomorrow. As my luck would have it, two of them are on American Airlines.

As I type this, one of them is on the phone with our travel agency's emergency line so that he can get from Washington, DC to Reno, NV.

Score.

Blogging v2.0

I used to have a blog. No, really, I did. Throughout high school and most of college I had a xanga page. I stopped using it because I found it became a slip-shod way of keeping in touch with friends. People decided that if they read my blog and left a canned comment it would suffice in maintaining a friendship. I learned that those are the people who I don't want or need as friends.

With a new life being created here in Indianapolis, I'm 900 miles from the friends I've made over the last 23 years. If there was ever a time in my life to capture thoughts, this is it. So here we go. Round two.

Let's see where this takes us...